Core Beliefs

We are the English Ministry at Lifestream Christian Reformed Church located in Artesia, CA. We are affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church denomination and affirm its mission and vision.

Our Core Values:

1. The GOSPEL

Our highest and most supreme value is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that the gospel is a radical message of grace and strive to grow our ministry and community based on this value. We desire to be saturated in the gospel in all aspects of our ministry.

2. TEACHING the gospel

The central message of the Bible is God’s plan to redeem his creation through his Son Jesus Christ. The very heartbeat of the gospel is God’s radical grace, which is the source of both salvation and sanctification. We desire to make the gospel explicit in both our message and practice.

3. ENCOUNTERING Jesus through gospel-fueled worship

Worship is a direct response to the life and goodness that God has given to us. At the same time, Spirit-led worship transforms us in our beliefs and identity. We desire to worship dynamically as both disciples and a family of Jesus Christ.

4. CONNECTING through gospel-centered relationships

God has called the church to live in fellowship for the purpose of accountability and sharpening. We believe that real relationships just don’t happen, but are cultivated through intentional practice. Although we desire to make Jesus the purpose of all our relationships, our small groups are especially intended for this.

5. GROWING gospel-centered disciples

The gospel calls us to be ministers in our own spheres of influence. We are to live out the gospel in our daily lives and be a source of light to those around us. As the English Ministry at Lifestream Christian Reformed Church, we are also intimately connected to our education department and strive to raise young disciples in the Youth and Elementary ministries.

Our Core Beliefs:

I. There is One God (Genesis 1:26-27, Matthew 28:19)

God is Triune, existing eternally as one God in three Persons: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all referred to as male. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. God is perfect in goodness, righteousness, justice, wrath, wisdom, mercy, grace, and love. God is without restraint or limitation in regards to time, force, action, space, or matter. God is the only true God; all others are false gods, they do not truly exist.

II. Man is Inherently Sinful (Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 3:23)

We are made in the image of God which is obscured through the stain of sin. We are sinful from the moment of conception, when we are fully human with a human soul. We are spiritually dead—unable to achieve any spiritual good—until regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We are under penalty of moral law and deserve divine moral justice, namely physical and spiritual death. We are unable to save ourselves by any means or merit or motive.

Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, 100% man, 100% God, unstained by man’s sin. Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life, being tempted in every way and overcoming every time. Jesus was physically killed, physically resurrected, and ascended into heaven. Jesus died an undeserved death, taking the place of any who surrender their lives to him in faith. Jesus is the only way of salvation, by paying the penalty for man—not removing it from him.

Saving faith is not earned or deserved by any man, but freely offered by God’s grace. Saving faith is produced by the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the man. Saving faith is an inherent trust in the character of God as described in His Word. Saving faith is manifested and witnessed in repentance, belief, and good works. Saving faith is indestructible, never failing, and cannot be lost, abandoned, or taken away.

V. Christ Will Come Again (Luke 21:27, Acts 1:10-11)

Christ currently sits at the right hand of God, alive and active in the world through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Christ will return in physical form as before to claim the earth with judgment. All persons who have ever lived will be resurrected with true, indestructible, physical bodies, like Christ. Those who had true saving faith will live on a new heaven and new earth with God. Those who did not have true saving faith will be cast into Hell—the lake of fire—with Satan and his minions forever.

VI. The Bible is God’s Perfect Word (2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:12)

The Bible is inerrant in all its original manuscripts. The Bible is infallible in all its parts, and as a whole. The Bible is plenary in its 66 books, missing no portion, nor having any unnecessary portion. The Bible is sufficient to achieve its purposes for faith and godliness in every time and every culture. The Bible is perspicuous, having one true meaning, knowable by any man through proper historical-grammatical context.